Mykolaiv residents accused the developer of the petrol station near «Zoria» of manipulation and violations: «Ready to protect every tree»

On Monday, 23 February, a second public hearing was held on the construction of a petrol station in the park near Zoria. Representatives of the developer were met with a wave of criticism from residents, who assured them that they were ready to defend the green zone.

The discussion took place in the format of a video conference, according to NikVesti.

In total, the hearings lasted more than four hours and were attended by 84 participants. The meeting began with emotional statements from Mykolaiv residents who oppose the destruction of trees. People emphasised that even without official status, the area is a park that is important to residents of nearby houses. They also noted that they do not need a petrol station and that even compensatory tree planting will not compensate for the loss of long-standing oak trees.

Viktor Syvulia spoke on behalf of the Lviv-based company SVIT ZDOROVIA. He continued to assure people that the construction of the petrol station does not violate the law, as it is not a recreational area but a protective zone for an industrial facility.

«Only the construction site will be cleared. Beyond that, the green spaces will remain. I don't consider this to be critical,» said Viktor Syvulia.

Viktor Syvulia also assured that they are ready to fully compensate for the felled trees.

«That act (the tree survey act, — note) was not actually signed. The response we received was: 'When we receive the permits, only then will it be signed and formalised'. Accordingly, there is also a letter from the Department of Public Utilities, which calculated the estimated cost of these plantings. We must compensate 4 million 189 thousand hryvnias. We will gladly plant trees wherever the city council tells us to,» said Viktor Syvulia.

In turn, the participants of the hearings drew the attention of the developer's representatives to the inaccuracy of the information in the EIA report. Inna Tymchenko, associate professor of the Department of Horticulture and Ecology at Taras Shevchenko National University of Luhansk, noted that the State Sanitary Rules for the Planning and Development of Settlements do not specify that petrol stations can be built in sanitary protection zones.

She also said that the report does not mention the cumulative impact of other facilities located around the planned development, such as two petrol stations and the Zoria enterprise. She also said that the report does not mention the predicted impact of noise and pollutants after the trees are cut down.

She noted separately that the report presented again shows signs of plagiarism.

«I appeal to the Ministry of Economy not to ignore this, as 54% of the report is plagiarised. The cumulative impact was simply copied from the report on the petrol station in Bila Tserkva... I understand that some points describe the methodology and provide information about the city of Mykolaiv, but there are points where the conclusions about the absence of impact on the climate are completely copied from another environmental impact report,» the ecologist noted.

In addition, Inna Tymchenko reminded that the report does not mention that there are oak trees on the territory of the planned construction, which are a valuable species. At the same time, the documents state that there is no impact on flora and biodiversity, although the felling of trees is such an impact. In addition, compared to last year's report, the sanitary protection zone for the planned activity has been reduced.

Alla Riazhskykh, a member of the Mykolaiv City Council and chair of the environmental commission, drew the attention of the Ministry of Economy to the fact that the report of the developer «World of Health» does not even have a date of approval, which is a violation.

«This is an uncertified report, and from a legal point of view, this makes it invalid. When a report is certified, it corresponds to the information contained therein,» said Alla Riazhskykh.

She also added that the developer indicates that the purpose of the activity is the need to increase the number of petrol stations in Mykolaiv in this area. However, it is unclear who determined this need.

A representative of the Mykolaiv Regional Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health also expressed her opinion and drew attention to the quality of the air that residents of houses adjacent to the petrol station will breathe. According to her, the EIA report does not mention the carcinogenic risk, but motor petrol is carcinogenic to humans.

«The carcinogenic risk of petrol emissions at emission sources 1, 2, 4 and 9 has not been studied at all. The same situation applies to soot, which also has its own carcinogenic potential factor according to the classification of the International Agency for Research on Cancer and is emitted from source No. 16 — soot, and the carcinogenic risk has not been calculated. We believe that the risk has not been calculated, the report contains false information, which is a violation of the law, or it is unreliable information, or concealment of information from the public,» she said.

In general, during the public hearings, there was not a single statement in favour of the construction of the petrol station. People called on Svit Zdorovia LLC to abandon the construction of the petrol station in this area. They expressed their willingness to even protest and defend every tree.

During the meeting, dozens of questions and comments were raised, to which Svit Zdorovia LLC must respond and provide written answers to everyone.

In addition, proposals from interested parties will be collected until 13 March and must be sent to the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine. After that, a decision must be made within 15 days — either to reject or to send the report for correction.

According to Yuliia Romanenko, a representative of the Ministry of Economy, Svit Zdorovia LLC has the right to correct the comments and resubmit the issues for discussion.

The EIA materials are available in the Unified Register under case number 14428 and on the EcoSystem platform.

The new EIA report includes a new environmental study commissioned by Svit Zdorovia LLC. It states that there are allegedly only a few oak trees on the site of the future construction.

However, earlier, the commission on determining the condition of green spaces and their replacement value, which included specialists from the sustainable development department of the Mykolaiv City Council's housing and utilities department, recorded 111 oak trees in the same area, which constituted the main body of green spaces.

It should be recalled that the Ministry of Economy held repeated public discussions on the construction of a petrol station in a green area in the Inhulskyi district of Mykolaiv.

The previous public hearings took place online on 2 July 2025. At that time, participants criticised the EIA report and accused the developer of plagiarism.

In November 2025, readers of NikVesti noticed marks on oak trees and expressed concern that the area might be cleared for the construction of a petrol station. After that, environmentalists inspected the oak trees along Kobera Street in Mykolaiv, near the Zoria plant. According to the inspectors' conclusions, all the trees are in satisfactory condition, the markings are random, and there are no grounds for felling them.

In turn, the head of the anti-corruption department of Mykolaiv, deputy from the Propozytsia party Andrii Yermolaev, revealed details of the scheme that made it possible to obtain permission to build a petrol station on the site of a green zone on Bohoiavlenskyi Avenue.

Details of the scandalous construction in the Inhulskyi district

The story surrounding the construction on Kobera Street began back in 2014. At that time, the company Svit Zdorovia received a plot of land near «Zoria»-«Mashproekt» for the construction of a sports and recreation complex. Some of the trees on the territory were cut down even then.

In March 2014, the then acting mayor Yurii Hranaturov publicly acknowledged during a meeting of the city executive committee that the situation raised many questions and stated that construction would be suspended until its feasibility had been clarified. Despite this, according to local residents, work continued, mainly at night.

In January 2015, the conflict escalated. Residents of houses located on Kobera Street and employees of the Zoria-Mashproekt plant took to the streets in protest. They claimed that a petrol station was being built on the site of the complex, even though according to the documents, a health centre was supposed to be built there. According to them, construction continued at night despite the city council's ban. They complained about the felling of about 100 trees in the park area, trenches in the courtyards and the disruption of the ecological balance in the industrial area.

On 28 January 2015, the Mykolaiv City Council refused to extend the land lease to Svit Zdorovia LLC.

It should be recalled that a year ago, the city council initially agreed to the actual renewal of the lease agreement for a land plot of 7,643 square metres to the Lviv-based company Svit Zdorovia, formally for the construction of a sports and health centre and the maintenance of administrative buildings. However, just two months after this decision, the city council agreed to change the intended use of the land plot to the placement and operation of road service facilities. Both issues were submitted for consideration at the session as part of a «package» with other land issues and were adopted without discussion.

Local residents told NikVesti that there were no public hearings on the development of this land plot and they had not heard of any. They recalled that even before the full-scale invasion, there had been attempts to build a petrol station in this area — and at that time, the project was successfully stopped.

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych responded to the scandal surrounding the construction of a petrol station in a green area and instructed his subordinates to prepare a report.

In November, it became known that the Ministry of Economy was holding repeat public discussions on the construction of the petrol station. In response, Mykolaiv residents sent a collective letter to the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine, protesting against the construction of a new petrol station complex by the company Svit Zdorovia LLC.

Later, green marks for felling reappeared on the oak trees along Kobera Street, near the Zoria factory. Environmentalists immediately inspected the oak trees. According to the inspectors' conclusions, all the trees are in satisfactory condition, the marks were made randomly, and there are no grounds for felling.